By Jenel Hunt
In a decision that is sure to make many of the region’s small landholders happy, the Southern Downs Regional Council has voted to keep its Quik Spray units in operation under dry-hire arrangements for pest management weed control in the region.
This has been a vexed question for the council since at least June 2021 when the idea was to offer the Quik Spray units to Landcare groups in the region.
The 215 January resolution follows on from a comprehensive report prepared by the Planning and Environmental Services for a council meeting in September. The report was updated with further information, giving costing breakdowns for the hourly use of each piece of equipment – seven Quik Spray mounted units which have been made available to the community under dry-hire arrangements.
“After initial Workplace Health and Safety concerns were raised by staff and advised to council at a council information session in June 2021, staff were instructed to offer the Quik Spray units to various Landcare groups within the Southern Downs Region in order to retain their availability within the community. Staff have been unable to find a not-for-profit group prepared to take ownership of the units in the current form,” the September report said.
The proviso was that the units be made available to the public within the region and that the groups be responsible for bookings, maintenance and repairs. After some initial interest, no group wanted to accept responsibility for any of the units.
The report said the Quik Spray units were originally funded through grants but there had not been a strategic plan for replacement and ongoing safety management. Current issues included the cost to council for maintenance and eventual replacement as there was only a refundable deposit charged to users, the chemicals that had been used were unknown to staff which posed a risk to their safety when they washed out the units or performed repairs on them, the units were sometimes improperly secured when being returned to the depot, the roadworthiness of vehicles and trailers being loaded was sometimes questionable, minimal instruction was provided and the level of competency of people using the units was unknown.
Recent external consultation efforts by the council invited comments from Landcare groups at Allora, Condamine Headwater and the Granite Belt as well as Traprock Group Association. Two of the four groups replied.
Condamine Headwaters Landcare Group co-ordinator Tanya Jobling said the group valued the council’s role in dry-hiring the units and did not itself have the capacity to offer a similar service.
President of the Traprock Group Association, Peter Reimers, said it was considered so important that the group would consider providing the service itself if the Quick Spray units were no longer available from the council. But, he said, the group would prefer the council to keep providing the service as it meant wider community use.
The original recommendation by the Planning and Environmental Services Department was to include the implementation of pricing as well as introducing new risk management strategies to sustain the service.
Although costing had been a key reason for the council’s decision being delayed to the January meeting, the issue of costing did not receive in-depth comment at the meeting, although Dr Marco Gliori asked ’how it would sit in the market’ if the council retained the units and offered them at a cost to ratepayers who hired it and he questioned if landholders might be subject to price gouging if the council removed itself from the market.
Director of Environment and Planning Department Services Scott Riley said one of the challenges for the smaller landholders was that their package wasn’t big enough for other options.
“Someone with scale typically owns their own equipment but for the smaller landholders they might hire a unit over a weekend or week and only use it for a small proportion of that time. It’s not attractive to an operator who wants to do two weeks at a time, not half a day,” he said.
Cr Cynthia McDonald said the council needed a proactive approach toward pest control and that it was time the council started listening to groups like the Pest Management Advisory Group. She said she endorsed holding the equipment and that perhaps training sessions could be added.
Deputy mayor Cr Ross Bartley said there were commercial people carrying out the activity of spraying and he saw a big future for them.
“They guarantee their work and they understand the obligations of spraying. Spraying herbicides comes with a huge responsibility and you’re supposed to be accredited. If you spray someone’s bees, it’s too late then,” he said.
He said the chemical companies should run the training and commented that some herbicides had the potential to kill humans.
The proof was in the pudding, with a 90 per cent uptake of use, according to Cr Stephen Tancred.
“I think the people who are using it are the smaller growers who are our problem target for pest management,” he said.
“I know there’s kickback about chemicals and there are transportation issues, but I’m sure we can find our way around those. People pay big money on deposits on equipment. I think we need to have a large deposit. With the liability issue I’m sure there are agreements so we can spread that liability. We already do field days. Maybe part of the agreement could be that they need to have done some basic training. We should look at this not as losing money but as giving a service.”
Mayor Cr Vic Pennisi said he had concerns as the dry-hiring arrangement was not part of the council’s core business. Also, the principle of competitive neutrality needed to be kept front-of-mind.
“If people (commercial contractors) already do hire the equipment we have to be very cautious that we are not undercutting. And we need to protect all ratepayers in relation to the money they give to us. We also have to be careful of the risk – you don’t want someone to end up poisoning someone else’s pet apricot tree.
In a majority vote, the council resolved to retain the Quik Spray units for dry hire to the community and implement amended workplace arrangements. There was at least one vote against; from Cr Pennisi.
